I Would Never
by DragonofFernweh
Summary: During a heated argument over something pointless, Naruto makes an innocent gesture that triggers a bad memory for Sasuke, frightening him, and a dark part of his past is brought to light. Heartbroken at the secret Sasuke kept, Naruto can't fathom ever laying a hand on Sasuke. "I would never hurt you, I promise." (NaruSasu, past abuse.)


**Prompt: Your OTP is fighting. When the argument gets heated, person A moves their hand to make a gesture, and person B flinches and covers their face. The argument halts as person A realizes that person B was once in an abusive relationship. Person A throws their arms around person B, hugging them tightly, reminding them that they could never hurt them.**

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The day had been unbearably long; from one mishap to the next, the seconds had seemed to wear into hours; Sasuke couldn't recall a time he'd been so relieved to escape work. He locked the doors behind him and bid the building a rude farewell. It wasn't as if Sasuke hated his work, in fact it was the contrary. Being a doctor and helping people better their lives gave Sasuke a sense of accomplishment, of worth; like he was finally making some right decisions.

However today had been disastrous; paperwork had been lost and misfiled, everyone seemed to have had a case of clumsiness today with how many things had been broken, and to top it off an insurance company that Sasuke used to accept had decided to stop working with him and this left several of the clients in the dirt. Fortunately Sasuke worked with excellent people in his practice and though things did seem like they'd work out, his stress levels were sky high. Especially with how frustrating this work could already be. Thank god he didn't work the weekend.

Naruto's day hadn't been much more cheerful; he worked as a teacher. Naruto truly adored his job and his students, but it was definitely a trying responsibility. "Worry about this, grade twenty of that, clean up over there, what the hell are you standing on?!" The entire week consisted of mischief and exhaustion, though Naruto was excellent at controlling his class, children were going to be children. Today had been the last day of class before a holiday, so the children had been extra impatient and rowdy; add all of the grading that came with the end of a semester and how much of a total snob his boss could be, Naruto had had it up to _here. _

God, whoever told children that growing up was fun and games really needed to be shot. Being twenty-six with a steady income was bloody fantastic, but it still wasn't a freaking picnic.

Still, Naruto breathed out a heavy sigh as he finally reached his cozy, welcoming home. It wasn't overly spacious, but it had plenty of room for two people. Plus a small black cat that Sasuke had somehow sneaked in and it took about two months for Naruto to even notice the damn thing; she had practically jumped into his cereal bowl one morning, otherwise Naruto could have remained oblivious about the strange purring and mysterious food bowl. Naruto shoved open the door and kicked it closed, dumping all of his work stuff in the hallway as he shed his coat and shoes along with them.

Sasuke jumped a bit at the loudness of the door, his heart took several seconds to stop racing. Even after he knew it was only Naruto. The glass of wine Sasuke had been sipping from was set on the counter as the man left the kitchen to see the cause of all of this noise. He heard Naruto grumbling long before he even got into the hallway; clearly someone was in a bad mood. The negative air put Sasuke off a little bit as well; the alcohol in his system hadn't helped calm him down as he'd hoped, in fact he was even edgier than before.

Sasuke frowned at seeing everything dumped in the hall, this was a long time habit of Naruto's that had driven Sasuke up the wall for ages; and much more so now that they lived together. Honestly, was it necessary to leave a mess everywhere? "Do you have to throw everything all over the place?" Sasuke's lecture was often repeated. He glared down at the jumble on the floor, where clothes, papers and muddy boots lay askew. "There's a place for all of that."

Naruto sighed in exaggerated dramatics and nudged past Sasuke, leaving the mess where it was and further annoying Sasuke. "It's just a couple things, Sas! Not everything's gotta be perfect all the time!" Naruto argued as he rolled his eyes, not in the mood to be treated like a child. Sasuke's intense need to have things clean and organized was usually just a mild irritation, but tonight Naruto found himself at the end of his rope with everything; even something as simple and stupid as this. "Give me a break!"

"I didn't say anything about perfect, we both know you can't pull that off. All I ask is that you clean up a little." Sasuke snapped as he began picking up his lover's mess himself, hanging up the coat and placing the shoes in the corner. Soon he followed Naruto in the living room and placed the papers on the table before he turned an icy glare on the irate blond.

"It's not that difficult, don't act like such a child about it! I hate constantly repeating this!" This was ridiculous, Sasuke knew how unreasonable he was being. He shouldn't be overreacting like this, but every tiny flaw seemed to tear at his nerves right now and Naruto's attitude was in no way helping. They were both pissed and the tension was high, with nothing else to take it out on but one another; so as irrational as this was, the miniscule argument was escalating into something full blown.

Naruto groaned in exasperation, the chill of Sasuke's glare almost made him shiver; but no! He wasn't going to just brush this off! "For god's sake, you're not flawless! So what if I drop things around sometimes? It makes the home all homey and lived in! And it's easy to find everything!" Naruto could point out where all of his stuff was, unless Sasuke moved it into his own stupid little organized spaces; that's when Naruto lost all of it!

Sasuke snorted in disbelief, and of course this spurred another rant from Naruto. "At least I don't bitch about every stupid thing like you do! It's impossible to satisfy you, it all has to be your way!" Naruto lifted his chin up triumphantly, as if this were all a contest they were battling. The accusation was unfair, but damned if Naruto was letting Sasuke win like he always did. True to Naruto's expectation, Sasuke stiffened.

"If you weren't so lazy and messy I wouldn't have to complain! You're like living with a kid! A loud one at that, it's like you can't even control your own voice! Shouting at everything like some kind of barbarian." Sasuke seethed, his eyes glinting with ire. When they fought it was as if everything was on fire, passion and fury went into every word and all of their bad traits were brought into play; antagonizing one another was something they'd done since they were very young, just children, but clearly they'd carried it on to adulthood.

Naruto spluttered indignantly. "What?!" Naruto's voice practically echoed off the walls, which proved Sasuke's point and caused the raven to wince; loud noise, he hated the yelling, hated the anger in it. "I work just as hard as you do, and I didn't have no rich family to put me through college either!" This made Sasuke boil with rage, but Naruto hadn't stopped. "So get off your damned high horse for once and stop acting like you're better than I am!"

Sasuke crossed his arms defensively as he glowered at the spitting mad blond in front of him, both of them stood in the middle of the living room; everything else seemed oddly silent, as if afraid to disturb the fight. More likely it was just the two men were too focused on one another to notice anything else, which always happened no matter what they were doing. "You work with bratty kids all day, which suits you perfectly because you're just like them." Sasuke spat, sneering at Naruto with contempt. How dare the asshole put down Sasuke's work, he'd fought to put himself through college. Naruto stormed closer to Sasuke, who struggled not to step backwards.

"They behave better than you do! They're much more polite! And they're _fun!" _Naruto couldn't believe Sasuke was insulting him like that! He couldn't even remember what sparked this fight, but the embers had burned into a full-fledged wildfire by now and it was burning them both. "You don't know how to have fun a day in your life, you bastard! You're all bossy and arrogant like you know everything!" Naruto regretted what he'd said, but it was too late to take any of this fight back. Their arguments were thorns with poison; taking aim at every flaw and darkening it, even when neither of them truly meant anything they said. This was war.

Guilt surged in Sasuke's chest, his heart was racing and his lungs seemed unable to suck in enough air. Was this really what Naruto thought of him? "It's better than knowing nothing, dobe!" Sasuke spat the old nickname, unable to really recall the last he'd used it, but it sure made Naruto snap.

"Fuck you! I know enough to see you're being a little brat about stupid shit!" Well, that was hypocritical and they both were aware of it.

Not one to give up, Sasuke soon shot back. "Then stop throwing a tantrum!" They were only a few inches away now, black clashing with blue as they stared one another down to see who'd back down first.

"God damn it!" Naruto's hand shot up into the air above them in exasperation; it was a pointless gesture, but it triggered something awful.

Sasuke flinched away from Naruto and his own arm pulled up to cover his face, as if trying to protect himself from being hit. The starving wildfire instantly extinguished and the spinning world around them crashed to a halt, leaving them both frozen. Naruto's arm lingered in the air for a second before it dropped down to his side, blue eyes were wide with shock and confusion as they stared at Sasuke, uncertain if an explanation was wanted or not. Did Sasuke really just think Naruto was going to strike him? The thought alone was unfathomable to the teacher.

It took a moment for the raven to snap out of his reflexive defenses, but by then he knew it was too late to try and brush this situation off. Sasuke wanted to vanish. Slowly, his eyes opened and he pulled his arm back down, focused on the ground as if willing it to open up and swallow him whole. His last relationship had ended so long ago, yet these ghosts still seemed to haunt him. Despite Naruto being Sasuke's closest friend, he'd never revealed the violence that had gone on in the past relationship. Even after he and Naruto finally got together; it was a secret Sasuke had wanted to keep to himself. His chest hurt and in the silence, Naruto could hear the shaky breathing. "Sasuke, I…did you really think that…I would never-"

Naruto was stuttering and he couldn't seem to finish one sentence as he frantically tried to piece together a puzzle he didn't have the parts to, desperately tried to say that he would never _ever_ lay a hand on Sasuke. Naruto would never hurt the person he loved more than anything, and realizing how much he'd just scared his boyfriend broke his heart. Sasuke's lips parted, but only silence came out; he shook his head and his eyes darted up to meet Naruto's. He felt horrible upon seeing how upset Naruto really was, and he hurried to try and fix it.

"It-it isn't you, I'm sorry…" Sasuke could do nothing but apologize, though he wasn't quite certain what it was for; the fight, the harsh words that had been said, for this reaction that pained him so greatly. Naruto cautiously raised his hand up again and cupped Sasuke's face, this time he tried so hard to keep his voice calm. The anger and petty argument that had filled the room moments before had been suffocated, leaking out through invisible cracks in the floor and walls. The answer was there now, all of the strange little _seemingly_ innocent things that Naruto noticed about Sasuke in the past several months suddenly fell into place; the way he jumped at loud sounds, the nervous glances when there was violence or yelling.

"He hit you…" Naruto's whisper was so quiet even Sasuke barely heard it; it didn't need to be heard, it wasn't a truth that wanted to be faced. It had been almost over a year, Sasuke should have been over it. What was Naruto going to think of him now? Too weak to defend himself, scared of stupid little things? Sasuke started to try again to explain, but he didn't get the chance. Naruto's arms wrapped around him tightly and crushed away the words and feelings.

Sasuke gasped, surprised at being pulled so close, but his wide eyes soon fell closed as he breathed in the familiar scent of his lover; the earth, the soothing and serene citrus, the chalk dust. Sasuke pressed his face against the crook of Naruto's neck, only listening to the man's steady breathing. His arms eventually slid up to wrap around Naruto's shoulders, the comforting embrace soothed away the day's woes and the past's pains, leaving Sasuke breathing with ease and his anxiety melting into nothing.

"I will never hurt you." Naruto whispered this promise against Sasuke's ear several times, pressing kisses to the raven's forehead and cheek and eventually their lips met softly. "Never."

Sasuke's fingers ran through Naruto's hair slowly, focusing on the soft feeling along with the loving, relaxing affection that bloomed throughout him as they shared the kiss. Stupid, stupid and pointless shit that they'd fought over, yet it always worked out didn't it?

"I love you."

Of course it did, it was what true love was.

"I could never hurt someone I love so much."

With that, Sasuke felt himself lighten as a heavy burden lifted off his shoulders. He smiled and slid his hands down to intertwine with Naruto's. When Sasuke felt Naruto's lips curve up into a smile he pulled back with a questioning tilt of his head. "I'll go clean that stuff up." Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly as he pulled away to go do just that; but he was pulled to a stop. Confused, he looked back to where Sasuke had caught his hand.

"Let's just go to bed." Sasuke had had enough of the world for today, he wanted to pretend there was nothing except him and Naruto tonight. A blinding grin was given in response as Naruto gave Sasuke's hand a squeeze and followed his love to their room, shutting the world away.

No, how could they ever hurt one another?

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**AUTHORESS NOTE:**

**I make the awful mistake of often browsing the tumblr blog otpprompts and of course I feel the need to write a NaruSasu for almost every prompt I see. Oh well, it's great fun and good practice. Hope you enjoy it! I definitely have a thing for Sasuke being in abusive pasts and Naruto helping to heal him. **


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